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The Global Intelligence Files

On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

more substantial comments are further below. i think this is still missing
one big piece that has to be explained.

Two Leaks Deepen the Iran Crisis

Two major leaks occurred this weekend over the Iran matter. The New York
Times published an article which said that staff at the International
Atomic Energy Administration, the UNa**s nuclear oversight group, had
published an unreleased report saying that Iran was much more advanced in
its nuclear program than the IAEA had thought previously, and now had in
hand all the data needed to design a nuclear weapon. The article also said
that U.S. intelligence was reexamining the National Intelligence Estimate
of 2006 that had stated that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear
weapon.

The second leak occurred in the London Times, which reported that the
purpose of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahua**s highly publicized
secret visit heh, nice oxymoron to Moscow on Sept. 7 was to provide the
Russians with a list of Russian scientists and engineers working on
Irana**s nuclear program. The second revelation was directly tied to the
first. There were manya**including STRATFORa**that felt that Iran did not
have the non-nuclear disciplines needed for rapid progress toward a
nuclear device. Putting the two pieces together, the presence of Russian
personnel in Iran would mean that the Iranians had obtained the needed
expertise from the Russians. It would also mean that the Russians were not
merely a factor in whether there would be effective sanctions, but even
more important, over whether and when the Iranians would attain a nuclear
weapon.

These are leaks. If we were to guess, the leak to the New York Times came
from U.S. government sources, simply because that seems to be a prime
vector of leaks from the Obama administration, and because it contained
information on the NIE review. The London Times leak could have come from
multiple sources, but we have noted a tendency of the Israelis to leak
through the Times on national security issues. It was an article that
contained a substantial amount of detail on the visit and appeared to be
written from the Israeli point of view. Neither leak can be taken at face
value of course. But it is clear that these were deliberate leaksa**people
rarely risk felony charges leaking such highly classified materiala**and
if not coordinated, they delivered the same message, true or not.

The message was in two parts. First, previous assumptions on time frames
on Iran are no longer valid, and worst case assumptions must now be
assumed. The assumption being presented now is that the Iranians are
moving rapidly toward a weapon, have been extremely effective at deceiving
U.S. intelligence (read, have deceived the Bush administration but the
Obama administration has figured it out) and that therefore, we are moving
toward a decisive moment with Iran. The second assumption is that this
situation is directly the responsibility of Russia. Whether these are
former employees of the Russian nuclear establishment now looking for
work, Russian officials assigned to Iran, or unemployed scientists sent to
Iran by the Russians is immaterial. The Israelisa**and the Obama
administrationa**must hold the Russians responsible for the current state
of Irana**s weapons program, and by extension, bear responsibility for any
actions that Israel or the United States might take to solve the problem.

We would suspect that the leaks were coordinated. From the Israeli point
of view, having said publicly that they are prepared to follow the
American lead and allow this phase of diplomacy play out, there clearly
had to be more substance to what? unclear than the meeting last week.
From the American point of view, while the Russians have indicated that
participating in sanctions on gasoline imports by Iran was not out of the
question, Medvedev did not clearly state that Russia would cooperate nor
has anything been heard from Putin on the subject. They appear to be
playing a**good cop, bad copa** on the matter, and the credibility of
anything they say on Iran has little weight in Washington.

It would seem to us that the United States and Israel decided to raise the
ante pretty dramatically in the wake of the October 1 meeting with Iran.
While AlBaradei visits Iran, massive new urgency has been added to the
issue. But we need to remember this. Iran knows whether it has had help
from Russian scientists. That cana**t be bluffed. The fact that that
specific charge was madea**and as of Sunday not challenged by Iran nor
Russiaa**would indicate to us more than an attempt to bluff the Iranians
into concessions. Unless the two leaks together are completely bogus, and
we doubt that, the U.S. and Israel are leaking information that would be
well known to the Iranians. They are telling them that their deception
campaign has been penetrated and, by extension are telling them that they
are facing actiona**particular if massive sanctions are impractical
because of more Russian blockage.

If Netanyahu went to Moscow to deliver this intelligence to the Russians,
the only surprise would have been the degree to which the Israelis had
penetrated the program and not that the Russians were there. The Russian
intelligence services are superbly competent and keep track of stray
nuclear scientists carefully. They would not be surprise by the charge,
only by Israela**s knowledge.

In short, the revelationsa**and clearly these were discussed in detail
among the P5+1 prior and during the meetingsa**regardless of how long they
have been known by Western intelligencea**have been leaked for a
deliberate purpose of two parts. First, to tell the Iranians that the
situation is now about to get out of hand, and that attempting to manage
the negotiations through endless rounds of delay will fail, because the
United Nations is aware of just how far they have come with the weapons.
Second, it is telling the Russians that the issue is no longer whether the
Russians will cooperate on sanctions, but on the consequence to Russiaa**s
relations with the United States and at least Britain and Francea**and
most importanta**possibly Germany. If these leaks are true, then they are
game changers.

We have focused on the Iranian situation not because it is significant in
itself, but because it touches on a great number of other, crucial
international issues. It is now entangled in the Iraq, Afghan, Israel,
Palestinian, Syrian, Lebanon issues, all of them high stakes matters. It
is entangled in Russian relations with Europe and the United States. It is
entangled in US-European relationships and with relationships within
Europe. It touches on US-Chinese relationships. It even touches on US
relations with Venezuela and some other Latin American countries. It is
becoming the Gordian knot of international relations.

Stratfor first began focusing on the Russian connection with Iran in the
wake of the Iranian elections and resulting unrest, when a crowd of
Rafsanjani supporters began chanting a**Death to Russia,a** not one of the
standard top ten chants in Iran. That caused us to focus on the
cooperation between Russia and Ahmadinejad and Khameni on security
matters. We were aware of some degree of technical cooperation on military
hardware, and of course on Russian involvement in the civilian nuclear
program. We were also of the view that the Iranians were unlikely to
progress quickly with its nuclear program. What we were unaware of was
that Russian scientists were directly involved in Irana**s military
nuclear projecta**reasonable given that it would be Irana**s single most
important state secret, and Russiaa**s too.

But there is a mystery here as well. The Russian involvement, to have any
impact, must have been underway for years. The United States has tried to
track rogue nuclear scientists and engineersa**anyone who could contribute
to nuclear proliferationa**from the 1990s. The Israelis must have had
their own program on this. Both countries, as well as European
intelligence sevicesa**were focused on Irana**s program and the
whereabouts of Russian scientists. It is hard to believe that they only
just found out. The Russian program must have been underway for yearsa**if
we were to guess, since just after the Orange revolution in Ukraine, when
the Russians decided that US was a direct threat to its national security.

Therefore, the decision to suddenly confront the Russians, and to suddenly
leak UN reportsa**much more valuable than US reports because they are
harder to ignore by Europeansa**cannot simply be because the US and Israel
just obtained this information. The IAEA, hostile to Bush since Iraq, and
very much under the influence of the Europeans, must have decided to shift
is evaluation of Iran. But far bigger is the willingness of the Israelis
to first confront the Russians, and then leak the fact can we state this
as fact since wea**re still just going off that report? Or do we know
something more? of Russian involvement. That obviously compromises Israeli
sources and methods. And that means that the Israelis no longer consider
the preservation of their intelligence operation in Iran (or where it is
carried out) as of the essence.

Two conclusions can be drawn. First, the Israelis no longer need to add to
their knowledge of Russian involvement. They know what they need to know.
Second, this could only be if they do not expect Iranian development to
continue much longer. Otherwise, maintaining the capability would take
precedence over anything else.

It follows from this that the use of this intelligence in diplomatic
confrontations with Russians and in a British newspaper serves a greater
purpose than the integrity of the source system. And that means that the
Israelis expect a resolution in the very near future. That is the only
reason they would have blown their penetration or the Russia-Iranian
system

Before you get into these scenarios, you really need to address the
strategic interest of Russia supporting a nuclear WEAPONS program in Iran.
Our net assessment says that Russia, at the end of the day, doesna**t want
Iran to have nukes. If we have something conflicting with that net
assessment, we need to think it through. Only then can we start talking
about scenarios where the Russians would abandon Iran or not.

There are two possible outcomes here. The first is that having revealed
the extent of the Iranian program and having revealed the role of
Russiaa**and having done so in a credible British newspapera**the Israelis
and the Americans (whose own leak in the New York Times underlined the
growing urgency of action) are hoping that the Iranians realized that they
are facing war, or the Russians realize that they are facing a massive
crisis in their relations with the West. Following from my comment above,
if you are going to say this, then we first need to know why Russia would
have provided the support in the first place. If the intent was to counter
the West, then this is according to plan. What kind of crisis then are the
Russians looking at? If that happens, then the Russians might pull their
scientists and engineers, join in the sanctions, and force the Iranians to
abandon their program.

The second possibility is that the Russians will continue to play the
spoiler on sanctions, and insist that they are not giving support to the
Iranians, and that the only thing left will be the military option, which
would mean broad based action, primarily by the United States, against
Irana**s nuclear facilitesa**bearing in mind both the fact that we now
know there are more than what were discussed before, and that the
operation would involve keeping the straits of Hormuz clear, meaning naval
action. The war would be for the most part confined to the air and sea,
but would be extensive nonetheless.

Sanctions or war are still the options and still in Russian hands, but
what we have seen in this weekends leaks is that the United States and
Israel have both put themselves in the position that there is not much
time left. We have moved from a view or Iran as a long term threat, to
Iran as a much more immediate threat thanks to the Russians.

The least that can be said about this is that the administration and
Israel are trying to reshape the negotiations with the Iranians and
Russians. The most that can be said is that the Americans and Israelis
are preparing the public for war. Polls can we cite specifically which
polls? Thata**s important now indicate that over 60 percent of the US
public now favor military action against Iran. From a political point of
view, it has become easier for Obama to act than not to act. This too is
being transmitted to the Iranians and Russians.

It is not clear to us that the Russians or Iranians are getting the
message yet. Each has convinced itself that Obama is unlikely to act.
This is a case where a reputation for being conciliatory actually
increases the chances for war. But he leaks this weekend have strikingly
limited the options and timelines of the U.S and Israela**and has
particularly put the spotlight on Obama, at a time when he is struggling
with Healthcare and Afghanistan. History is rarely considerate of
Presidential plans, but in this case the leaks have started to force his
hand.

One more thing is not adding up for me. If the IAEA leak was from the
White House, why is Gen. Jim Jones still saying they are going by their
own assessments? He pretty much refuted the IAEA report in his interview
today